"I think it's going very well," said Simmons, the founder of Def Jam Records and the
summit's organizer. "We're here also to celebrate and know our power, and how
influential we are … to build on what we have."

What they have is one of the most profitable arms of the music industry. Yet like their
rock-star predecessors, the flamboyant personalities topping the charts continue to
find their lyrics debated in Washington, D.C.

Just last week, the Federal Communications Commission fined a Colorado radio
station $7,000 for playing Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady." The station said it
thought the song it played was a clean version of the track, but the FCC still deemed the version indecent.

Typically Divided Hip-hop Community Unites

Politicians, religious leaders, and the musicians are meeting largely behind closed
doors. When they wrap up Thursday, they hope to have a unified plan for the industry
as it moves forward.

Members of the NAACP and rapper Chuck D were among the first speakers to take
the mic in the opening session. Chuck D focused on marketing, accusing record
labels and the media of "narrowcasting" — preventing a diverse range of hip-hop
artists from getting airplay and attention.

Rising star Kweli said outside the meetings that the three-day seminar brings together a
community that is often divided by feuds among its musicians.

"It's a good, positive direction, it's good that the people involved in hip-hop are the
ones that are taking responsibility," said Kweli.

Prime on his mind, and on most of the artists', is freedom of speech.

"I've been fighting this battle for about 12 years now," said 2 Live Crew originator
Luther Campbell. "It's good that everybody is now collectively trying to get together to
understand what the actual issue is. And what the political issues are."

Black Artists Targeted?

Campbell was among the first rappers to put a warning label voluntarily on one of his
albums. He says he's at the conference to voice concerns over "open" attempts at
censorship in Washington, D.C.

He said he's concerned by efforts spearheaded by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.,
to crack down on record labels, movie studios, and others in the entertainment
industry who market violent or sexually explicit material to kids.

"Our own is attacking us," Campbell said of the former Democratic vice-presidential
nominee. "It's not Bush, it's not the Republicans, who are known as being right-wing,
anal people … so it's kind of weird."

He feels that politicians are especially targeting black artists.

"Before it was just music; now it's the entire black music industry, it's the entire black
movie industry," Campbell said.

"Most artists are really spilling the beans on the politicians [in their works]. They're
saying the struggles that we go through every day in dealing with the police, they're
saying the struggles we have to deal with just being black in the United States of
America — a lot of politicians don't like that."

He's not knocking parents' concerns about the potential impact of lyrics. He says
parents should learn what their kids are playing in their rooms. "Parents should
definitely be concerned. I'm a parent myself — that's why I put the [warning label]
sticker on there," said Campbell.

Kweli agreed that many rappers feel parental concerns.

"I'm a parent and I would say the vast majority of hip-hop artists are parents, so when
you talk about parents, you're also talking about hip-hop artists. I know there are
artists who I listen to who I would never play around my kids," he said.

Politicians Say Industry Must Self-Regulate

The summit also drew politicians, including Democratic Reps. Cynthia A. McKinney of
Georgia, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, and Earl Hilliard of Alabama. FCC
Chairman Michael Powell is also slated to attend.

"We're here to ask the industry to set up standards so it can regulate itself, so it can
police itself. This would be in line with what the movie industry has done," Hilliard
said.

He suggested that rappers might prefer to rate their own content before the government
does it for them, as proposed under a Senate initiative.

"Since we do not know the hip-hop generation, we do not know the hip-hop industry;
we feel that those who know the industry can regulate it better," Hilliard said.

Rapper Treach of the Grammy-winning group Naughty by Nature agrees that artists
should be in charge of their lyrics.

"We created this whole culture, so we have a right to control it," he said.

But don't expect Def Jam's Simmons to encourage rappers to change their words.
"We absolutely are not trying to clean up anything," he said.

And, he jokes, this is just the beginning: "Eminem's records are fun, but there's much
scarier records we want to make."